~ Thinking outside the box about Cambodia

Category Archives: Politics

In Old Man Khmao Town, two swallows sitting on an electrical cable over the Old Péth Chkuort building, were chatting quietly while the monsoon rain was threatening from Paris:Chheu Smaa: Are you ready for the 9 November reception?Phkaï Mphéy: Yes, I am.Chheu Smaa: And your guys?Phkaï Mphéy: Can’t ascertain for sure.Chheu Smaa: What do you mean?Phkaï Mphéy: Two things not clear to them: 1) What are they going to do with thousands and thousands of people in motion? and 2) how are they going to be split between the parade at the Monument of Independence and the reception?Chheu Smaa: What are Duck-and-White’s plans?Phkaï Mphéy: None. Same. None of them know what to do. They talk and threaten like you do on FB.Chheu Smaa: Don’t they understand my mind and decision?Phkaï Mphéy: That, they do. But there is an ocean between understanding and setting up execution plan.Chheu Smaa: And the borders?Phkaï Mphéy: They are on full alert and manned as usual.Chheu Smaa: Thailand,Laos, Vietnam, sea coasts?Phkaï Mphéy: All official checkpoints are fully equipped, but there are more than 500 miles of frontiers and we can’t post one soldier or policeman on every yard?Chheu Smaa: And the airports?Phkaï Mphéy: Airports? Why do you think he’ll fly in like a fly attracted by the bonfire?Chheu Smaa: He doesn’t have the guerrilla disposition like I did with Pol Pot or the Vietnamese.Phkaï Mphéy: Your past disposition is not the same as your present one. And no sign of full cooperation has been received from the 3 neighbors.Chheu Smaa: You mean all 3?Phkaï Mphéy: Yes, all 3.Chheu Smaa: Why?Phkaï Mphéy: Inner River is silent like midnight winter at South Pole. Have you received anything that you don’t want to share or be implemented?Chheu Smaa: That’s why Silver is in Laos.Phkaï Mphéy: Is Silver in the game, or is he like White or Duck? Could he answer the key questions about the reception?Chheu Smaa: What key questions?Phkaï Mphéy: 1) What if you can’t catch him? 2) If you caught him, what will you do the next hour?Chheu Smaa: I’ll catch him and lock him up in the same cell as oppo No. 1 in Thbum Khmaung?Phkaï Mphéy: OK, for question No. 2, but what would you do with him the next day or month? Don’t repeat the error you made with oppo No.1. How about my question No. 1?Chheu Smaa: He has to come in, because otherwise he’ll loose all credibility with his people?Phkaï Mphéy: His credibility with his people is not your problem for the moment. It’s his problem and he’ll own it. The question to you still is: if he’s in and you can’t catch him, what will be your order for us to execute?Chheu Smaa: Now my question to you is: if he’s in, why can’t you catch him?Phkaï Mphéy: We don’t know his whereabouts. Have you heard about Schindler’s List?Chheu Smaa: My son, the Intelligence man, should know?Phkaï Mphéy: That kid, your presumed dauphin, if only he knows where his underwear or shoes are?Chheu Smaa: Easy on him, he’s learning.Phkaï Mphéy: Bad teacher doesn’t make good teaching to unwilling kid!Chheu Smaa: The circle doesn’t seem to close.Phkaï Mphéy: No. You already made the first mistake by arresting oppo No.1, and now trying to arrest oppo No.2?Chheu Smaa: I have to double down, otherwise I’ll lose face.Phkaï Mphéy: Losing face should not be in such a big political and national equation.Chheu Smaa: I can’t turn back the clock. I’ll make the clock going forward for me.Phkaï Mphéy: You’re playing Mugabe’s game.Chheu Smaa: What choice do I have, with hundred and hundred millions $ under my bed and the deal I’ve made with Northern Capital.Phkaï Mphéy: I can’t address that. You threw the dice, and the number came out to haunt you.Chheu Smaa: You’re not helpful.Phkaï Mphéy: The idea and strategies are yours. I execute it. Unclear strategies create high risks in execution, because it will involve people lives.Chheu Smaa: You talk differently now.Phkaï Mphéy: Since 1975, we run a lot around on how to dominate, but the domination has turned out to be different from the original idea.Chheu Smaa: What do you mean?Phkaï Mphéy: Come on, “what do you mean?” Tonlé Sap, Bokor, casinos, dams, Kg Som, Dara Sakor, Ream, Hostile Takeover … that what I mean!Chheu Smaa: You have a piece of it to, haven’t you?Phkaï Mphéy: Yes I do, but nowadays and around my dinner table, the discussions are very tough with my kids who don’t know anybody beside you as the leader, whereas they perfectly know that the world is moving around with different ideas and people all the time. They might show up at the reception and they have already dared me to arrest or shoot them.Chheu Smaa: You look soft!Phkaï Mphéy: Age changes people. You still don’t answer my question No.1.Chheu Smaa: I will be at the spot where he’ll be found and direct the operations myself.Phkaï Mphéy: That’s not the answer. If we know where he will be, we’ll do it for you. And stay where you are to nurse your shoulder pain. Until I get the answer, I can’t justify the order to the troops to arrest him. Only exactly 2 months left to set up the stratagems.Chheu Smaa: True, the pain in the shoulder affects my overall mobility that conditions my relationship with my surroundings. If you were me, what would be your answer to your own question No. 1.Phkaï Mphéy: Pledge incompetence because if I were you I would have let the 2018 elections go on normally. And que sera, sera! I would have listened to people’s voice and heartbeats and respect their ballots.Chheu Smaa: You didn’t say that to me at that time.Phkaï Mphéy: I did, but my suggestion was drowned by those closer and closest to you.Chheu Smaa: You should have insisted.Phkaï Mphéy: Very difficult to penetrate the many rings of brutal bulldogs.Chheu Smaa: You still don’t answer my hypothetical question?Phkaï Mphéy: OK, if you insisted: Be honest with yourself and go and tell the party directly that you have had enough with politics, you don’t have the physical ability to lead anymore, you resign from your position as party leader and LET THE PARTY DECIDE ON HOW TO PROCEED on your replacement. Take the next plane either to Northern Capital for medical treatment like Sihanouk did or to Singapore like Mugabe did.Chheu Smaa: Won’t be that easy.Phkaï Mphéy: What makes you thing that this whole stuff is easy to handle?Chheu Smaa: The party won’t be able to decide.Phkaï Mphéy: Why?Chheu Smaa: There is no dominant person and there could be too many “suitors?”Phkaï Mphéy: You never wanted White or the senator to be your replacement, in case… Instead you play around with the idea of junior. Unintended compounded problems! If you resigned, the party will find a solution the next hour. Same if you dropped dead.Chheu Smaa: Give me one more good reason why I should resign?Phkaï Mphéy: Ready: You will avoid or suffer the consequences of all the voluntary troubles you have created with oppo, the Vietnamese and the Chinese. The mess that you have created will be handled one way or another by your party or successor. Remember the thread David Cameron-Theresa May-Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party of UK politics on Brexit: Theresa May inherited David Cameron’s mess, Boris Johnson inherited Theresa May’s mess, and who knows who will inherit Boris Johnson’s mess?!The good thing is that Cameron and May enjoy their vacations while Boris Johnson is now having a s… of a time.Chheu Smaa: It makes sense, bu I can’t do that.Phkaï Mphéy: Why?Chheu Smaa: History will wipe me out of its book.Phkaï Mphéy: You’ve have made your history since your youth, but future history of the country will be the consequences of your own history. Why would you care about history?Chheu Smaa: My family will live in shame.Phkaï Mphéy: Have you talked to Pol Pot’s children?Chheu Smaa: Do you really think that he will be in the country on 9 November?Phkaï Mphéy: My opinion is worth nothing. It’s your perspective that I need to know.Chheu Smaa: Would the soldiers or policemen drop their guns and shackles like Lon Nol troops did upon our arrival in Phnom Penh in April 1975 or like Pol Pot’s troops did upon our arrival in Phnom Penh in January 1979? That’s history.Phkaï Mphéy: Either history repeats itself or rather like Mr. Kem Ley’s funerals procession in July 2017. My kids were in that procession too.Chheu Smaa: Thanks for the chat. Time to take medicine and write few lines on FB to keep my fans in “like”.Phkaï Mphéy You don’t look good, do you?Chheu Smaa: The shoulder pain’s episode.Phkaï Mphéy: I’ll be waiting for the 9 November plan, if you come up with any.

Both swallows parted after leaving few droppings on the roof of the Old Péth Chkuort building.

The exiled will return to Cambodia on 9 November 2019. So, have stated the press statements from his party, unequivocally, precise and direct.

The return of the prodigal son!

When politicians speak, either one believes them or doesn’t. Also, some politicians keep their promise, some don’t. It’s the politics of the politicians. When promises are kept and honored, the constituents would later reward them handsomely, but if they are not kept, the constituents would feel that they are cheated. Constituents can be cheated once, twice but not thrice. Political suicide doesn’t need to jump off the cliff to the abyss.

You may recall that, during the past 4 years, letters with titles “On the 62nd Anniversary of Independence of Cambodia“, 63rd, 64th and 65th were sent to you. So, according to the above news pieces, unless “force majeure” or “act of God” [could a philosopher ask: Why would God interfere with mortals’ businesses!?] would interfere, the exiled would return to Srè Khmok on the day that coincides with the official day when Srè Khmok had successfully wrestled and obtained its independence from France. There is nothing wrong to choose that date, strategically speaking, but to associate the date and its national and historical connotation with the return is a risky business if the return turned out to be a “delayed-or-postponed return”. A shorter order, sometimes is better than a tall one when so many parameters are factored in the unknown equation. Incidentally, the Bonn Om Touk or Water Festival would traditionally commence the following morning, 10 November, if the water level on the Tonlé Sap is not affected by the drought. With millions of people are on holidays and in festive mood, you may wonder what the full moon will bring to Cambodia after 34 years under the corrupt yoke of an ex-KR.

Oh, Kacvey, have you noticed that the English version of the press statement, unlike the Khmer language version, did not mention anything related to the independence?

As a matter of political curiosity, your students might ask why telling the whole world about such a particularly precise date of return? How about leaving that question to reporters or journalists to extract the worms out of his nose, bearing in mind that the strategists or planners who surrounded him know what they were doing. For our part, a poem by James W. Foley: “Drop a Pebble in the Water” could be metaphorically referred to:“Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on,
Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea.
And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be.
Drop a pebble in the water: in a minute you forget,
But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples circling yet,
And those little waves a-flowing to a great big wave have grown;
You’ve disturbed a mighty river just by dropping in a stone.”

Las Vegas bookies, what are the odds?

Enough taking about the return, how about the “welcoming party”?

It has now been many months that the weak strongman’s war apparatus has been put on alert or war path at every inch on the country land borders or seashores, every port, kampong or airport, every train or bus stations, every embassy or consulate, every river, lake pond, mountain and forest, every នំបញ្ចុក stand that exists on the planet, every bar, karaoke or drug den, every pagoda or hospital, every market, mall or school, every radio or TV station, every stadium, park or playground, etc … The Northern Capital has also supplied additional war materials and equipment to reinforce the existing war machines against the Khmer. The net seems so tight that even water would have difficulty to seep in. So how the exiled is going to get into Cambodia without being detected?

History told that in 1976 the weak strongman sneaked into Vietnam without his leader Pol Pot knew about it. His master in the Northern Capital knew a lot about how the outlaws operated in the classic “Water Margin 水浒传” or how the warriors assaulted the fortresses in “Three Kingdoms 三国”. And how about parachuting in the night? or flying with Hoverboard like Franky Zapata very recently did over the Channel? or dressed up in a swimsuit as a shark and landed in Kg Som and changed into a Chine$e gambler or a dumpling street vendor? Inspiration could be had from Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne or Ian Fleming’s James Bond, couldn’t it? Enough of fantasizing!

By the way, 9 November 2019 is also written as 9/11/2019 in Gregorian calendar format or 11/9/2018 in the U.S. Calendar format.

Paris XXI: Allô, Paris XXI vous écoute.Tuorl Kôrk: Hello, it’s Tuorl Kôrk speaking.Paris XXI: Good to hear your voice. Aren’t you afraid that your phone is wiretapped?Tuorl Kôrk: It’s always been. What else is new! The more they wiretap, the more the world knows.Paris XXI. Let’s go straight to the point.Tuorl Kôrk: It’s August, and September is next.Paris XXI. I know and I’m ready.Tuorl Kôrk. Can’t greet you when you’re in, because they lay many rings of barbed wire around me.Paris XXI. The “HCM trail” will carry the bag of rice to you.Tuorl Kôrk. Thanks, but remember this: 以逸待劳.Paris XXI. Yeah, choosing the time and place, and confusing the enemy.Tuorl Kôrk. Few critical dates in September: 1: Death of Louis XIV, 2: London was on fire, 4: Los Angeles was founded, 9: Mao Zedong died, 11: Terrorists attacked World Trade Center, 11: I was released on bail but still in house arrest, 12: Germany unified, 15: Agatha Christie was born, 19: New Zealand, first country to grant women the right to vote, 25: William Faulkner was born…Paris XXI: We have the map and the calendar.Tuorl Kôrk: Make it one of the days of Khmer history!Paris XXI. Is your phone on 5G?Tuorl Kôrk: What’s the difference, 4G or 5G, both Chinese and Vietnamese are listening anyway, and it’s good that they do because they even know what time the other guy goes to pee or … if he still can.Paris XXI. What’s the mood inside the lair?Tuorl Kôrk: Pretty nervous ’cause the split is real inside each family. They only focus on arresting “you” by using 擒贼擒王 stratagem, and they don’t have a clue on what to do next. They don’t dare asking their masters because they are f… if their masters know their stupid ruse.Paris XXI. Role reversal of 17 April 1975?Tuorl Kôrk: And the “shoulder pain” of the other guy is not a good sign of encouragement to his sycophants.Paris XXI: What’s the mood on the river banks?Tuorl Kôrk: The tapes of your return in July 2013 and the funerals of Mr. Kem Ley in July 2016 are just too big for their mind. Fear isn’t even the right word.Paris XXI. How the flood could be played?Tuorl Kôrk: It’s neither good for you nor for him.Paris XXI. And the Chinese?Tuorl Kôrk: They won’t come out against you. Catch one who can’t speak Khmer or know nothing about Khmer, and the embassy will deny: it’s too risky for this master.Paris XXI: And the Vietnamese?Tuorl Kôrk: They will just watch and wait to see how the guy handles it.Paris XXI. Any នំបញ្ចុក or “noum kruork” party before?Tuorl Kôrk: Don’t be de-focused. Work first, eat later.Paris XXI. That’s it, right?Tuorl Kôrk. That’s it, for now.

In the current world geopolitical turmoil, it would be good for your students who are studying the relationship between Cambodia and China and the consequential vassalization of Cambodia by China, to take a step back and serenely ponder on the Chinese ancient text of Dao De Jing, Chapter 29:“Does anyone want to take the world and do what he wants with it?
I do not see how he can succeed.
The world is a sacred vessel, which must not be tampered with or grabbled after.
To tamper with it is to spoil it, and to grasp it is to lose it.”

道德经 – 第二十九章：

将欲取天下而为之，
吾见其不得已。

天下神器，
不可为也。

为者败之，
执者失之。

Hope you would have a deep discussion on the issue of the possibility that Cambodia will lose everything that the Khmer have built since time ever to the people of the Northern Capital to whom the weak strongman has sold the entire country for his diabolical greed of power over the Khmer without knowing that he just is an expendable worms in the “One Hundred-Year Marathon” scale and when the people of the Northern Capital achieve their “China Dream.”

As Cambodia has already started to be dominated, vassalized or colonized by China, it would be important that your students should be aware of the unsaid, unexplained or unrevealed Chinese thinking that could help them when coming face to face with the invaders or colonizers. To learn to understand the Chinese is the only way that would enable them to deal vigorously and intelligently with the Chinese that had studied and understood Khmer attitude and thinking long, long time ago.

The Chinese are using the tricks that their ancestors had taught them since time memorial, and every Chinese from high school up knows them by heart, thinks, reasons and behaves accordingly, both in planning and negotiating, and in critical moments.

The present era is that the Chinese have put in actual application what they have learnt all along; they do it to the world, and by extension to Cambodia with the help of US trade deficit and US largess on sciences and technology since the historical Richard Nixon’s visit in 1972.

The fundamental ideas are contained in a very ancient and classic text called “The Thirty-Six Stratagems” (三十六计) that illustrated a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and in civil interaction.

Kacvey, you can argue that since the essay is available in every book store, why making such a big deal? You have indeed a very valid point, but the issue is not about availability of the material, but the knowledge that the material is important and should be studied. A book that is open but unread doe not make the person holding it knowledgeable.

Below is the list of stratagems contained in the 6 Chapters of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, and the basis of that, your students could begin to study further and deeper their meaning under different forms, situations or circumstances, bearing in mind that the value is not in the literal meaning of each Chinese character or their combination into phrase or idiom, it rather is in the figurative meaning that is hidden in the pictograph of the Chinese language.

Chapter 1: Winning Stratagems 胜战计

Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean 瞒天过海

Besiege Wei to rescue Zhao 围魏救赵

Kill with a borrowed sword 借刀杀人

Wait at leisure while the enemy labors 以逸待劳

Loot a burning house 趁火打劫

Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west 声东击西

Chapter 2: Enemy Dealing Stratagems 敌战计

Create something from nothing 无中生有

Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang 明修栈道,暗度陈仓

Watch the fires burning across the river 隔岸观火

Hide a knife behind a smile 笑里藏刀

Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree 李代桃僵

Take the opportunity to pilfer a goat 顺手牵羊

Chapter 3: Attacking Stratagems 攻战计

Stomp the grass to scare the snake 打草惊蛇

Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul 借尸还魂

Entice the tiger to leave its mountain lair 调虎离山

In order to capture, one must let loose 欲擒故纵

Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem 抛砖引玉

Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief 擒贼擒王

Chapter 4: Chaos Stratagems 混战计

Remove the firewood from under the pot 釜底抽薪

Disturb the water and catch a fish 浑水摸鱼

Slough off the cicada’s golden shell 金蝉脱壳

Shut the door to catch the thief 关门捉贼

Befriend a distant state while attacking a neighbor 远交近攻

Obtain safe passage to conquer the State of Guo 假道伐虢

Chapter 5: Proximate Stratagems 並战计

Replace the beams with rotten timbers 偷梁换柱

Point at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust tree 指桑骂槐

Feign madness but keep your balance 假痴不癫

Remove the ladder when the enemy has ascended to the roof 上屋抽梯

Deck the tree with false blossoms 树上开花

Make the host and the guest exchange roles 反客为主

Chapter 6: Desperate Stratagems 败战计

The beauty trap (Honeypot) 美人计

The empty fort strategy 空城计

Let the enemy’s own spy sow discord in the enemy camp 反间计

Inflict injury on oneself to win the enemy’s trust 苦肉计

Chain stratagems 连环计

If all else fails, retreat 走为上计

Your students should also be knowledgeable about the Chinese concept of “Tianxia” 天下 (or “All Under the Heaven”) that could be found comprehensively explained in the book “RENEWAL – The Chinese State and the New Global History” by Wang Gungwu 王賡武, a historian and professor.

Kacvey, please also warn your students that learning the above essay is like scooping up a bucket of water from the ocean of Chinese history and thinking, but like Laozi said in Chapter 64 of Dao De Jing 道德经: “A journey of a thousand leagues starts from where your feet stand”, 千里之行，始於足下.

Have you seen the three articles written in Khmer and published in three sites about what the two samd’achs had said in public? Was it a journalistic coincidence, a calculated conjunction or a chance fortuity? If so, have you discussed them with your students? And what do they think or how do they read between the lines?

You certainly remember Raymond Poulidor and his performance at Tour de France, don’t you? And his famous self-appreciation of never donning “le maillot jaune”, not even once: «je suis connu pour être l’éternel second»!

One is the top from day 1 of the regime and the other as number 2 since that same day 1;

One talks a lot and brags about the army and the bodyguards and their loyalty, the other only about the police, but the sycophant that runs the defense department behaves like a duck that knows that its destiny will be roasted as “téa khwày”;

Both of them seem to ignore each other, or rather watch each other with hawks eyes;

In the meantime, for both of them to remain in power, they refrain from being critical of each other, but after 34 years at the same position as eternal number 2, is this what a person really wants? Raymond Poulidor had tried very hard against Jacques Anquetil, but Pou-Pou was never able to dominate the race to win the “maillot jaune” when the Tour finished on the Champs Elysées;

While one is placing his sons in strategic military positions, the other consolidate his “Interior”, and

Unfortunately for both of them, their “generals” are so corrupt that whatever they do, neither of them won’t be able to rely on their “generals” that do not know anything about military or police principle and theory for the service of the country and the people.

Kacvey, what will be going on over there?
Is something being cooked up for “Belshazzar’s feast”?
Or is it an intra-party-colorless-or-White-silent-revolution?
When democracy is dead, dictatorship rules.
Which dictator succeeded to pass the rein of dictatorial power to baby dictator? Duvalier? Noriega? Franco? Bhutto? Idi Amin? Stalin?
Dictatorship will also die, and the question is how and when will it do.

Well, the weak strongman admitted that has chosen “to eat the grass with the Cambodian people.”

Yeah, “Khmer si smauv.” The students had been talking non-stop about it, and related jokes were even heard in the corridor.

What jokes?

Can’t tell. Too crude. Will tell when meet in person. But it’s awkwardly strange that the weak strongman changed his diet to include grass.

Like a cow or a horse!

But an omnivorous man is also herbivorous, naturally.

It’s more than that. Since the weak strongman unequivocally said it, it looks like it is coming straight from the horse’s mouth. What would that mean? Let surmise to get some sense out of it:
– By eating grass the weak strongman brags that he “won’t die soon” and “no one (in his family) has had any serious illnesses since the ancestors.” Eating grass renders immortality, doesn’t it?!
– By eating “grass with the Cambodian people”, did he imply that Cambodian people “si smauv” not rice? True, there are quite a number of vegetables, herbs and spices that look like “grass” and are delicious, but to “eat grass” does not necessarily suggest the same culinary or gastronomic connotation as to eat vegetables.
– By eating grass, does he insinuate that he grazes?
– By eating grass, does he imply that he also “smokes” it?
– When eating grass, does he chew it?
– By eating grass, does he have a stomach with 4 pockets?
– By eating “grass with the Cambodian people”, who eats the rice from the Khmer rice fields, or who “si bai”?
– By insinuating that Khmer eat grass, does he continue to insult them by reviving the Pol Pot era’s tragic nightmares when he was a devoted subaltern?
– By eating grass, does he acknowledge that he reserves rice for his 2 lords who feed him with power and wealth?
– If he ate grass, would his relatives share the same menu or table?
– While on golf course and if hungry, would he grab a handful of bentgrass or bluegrass for snack?
– If he eats grass, why did he hint that Cambodian people eat grass? Is he imposing dictatorial measures upon Cambodian people for grass consumption?
– When self-serving grass, would he part the sprigs or the blades first?

Kacvey, if you went out to cut the grass for your dinner as decreed by the weak strongman, please bear in mind these few words from Virgil: “There’s a snake lurking in the grass.”

The weak strongman, being so sure of his endless longevity declared that: “I am not going to die any time soon”. Let his words be witness of his life, against the background painted by Mother Angelica: “God knows Himself and every created thing perfectly. Not a blade of grass or the tiniest insect escapes His eye.”

And if he is “not going to die any time soon”, Frank Richard Stockton would have this wish for him: “May you live to see the green grass growing over your grave.”

Please tell us how glorious were the fireworks at the VI..N..-VI..N.. Monument on the eve of the New Year, if there were any? A usual monologue speech filled with indignant and incongruous verbiage was however delivered by the weak strongman to a scattered applause from his sycophants.

Do you have a chance to pass by that useless and grotesque piece of white cement days after its inauguration to see how it stands in shame and distaste in the middle of a dictatorial socio-political landscape designed for the weak strongman’s vanity and arrogance?

Please update when you have a chance. Thanks.

The subject of today’s letter for you and your students to discuss and analyze is about what the weak strongman had lately and publicly expressed with slight, disdain and disrespect against of royal family and that could be characterized as a possible crime of lèse majesté.

As far as Khmer history is concerned, and for whatever reason one wished to formulate, the kingdom of the Khmer never had any law against lèse majesté. The worst that happened was the abolition of the monarchy by the Lon Nol regime and that abolition was maintained not only under the genocidal Khmer Rouge Pol Pot regime but also under the Vietnamese-supported regime of the current weak strongman when he returned to Cambodia from Vietnam on 7 January 19179 until the UNTAC election in May 1993. The monarchy was restored after the completion of the election with the coronation of Sihanouk.

In its Khmer language article dated 21 December 2018, Radio Free Asia reported about staff management issue in the CNC television and the pressure that the weak strongman exercised upon the CNC leadership to revert a decision involving the firing of a staff member believed to be one of his relatives; the weak strongman made it clear that “ជាមួយ​ខ្ញុំ​កុំ​និយាយ​ឲ្យ​សោះ​ឪ​ស្តេច​ម៉ែ​ស្តេច ក៏​ខ្ញុំ​ដាក់​ដែរ”. In its English version, Radio Free Asia reported that: “well I’m not even afraid of the queen and the king’s father!”

Kacvey, you and your students would certainly be of the opinion that the English translated of the weak strongman’s words from Khmer are much more mild, polite and uncompromising, but the Khmer words are plain insolence, disrespect and contempt towards the king’s father and mother. On 30 December 2018, Radio Free Asia followed it up with a Khmer language article with opinions from different commentators that you and your students can fully appraise and appreciate.

For our part, let just ask the questions:

Why the weak strongman needed to refer to “the queen and the king’s father” in his argument in such a withering and disparaging manner?

What’s behind his motive?

Is there a dark scheme brewing or germinating inside his mind and future plan? Fujian versus or to replace Corsica?

Has he forgotten that there is a law of “his” on lèse majesté?

As the whole world knows that he rules Srok Khmer and all Khmer laws are nothing else but his toilet papers, would he infer that the law on lèse majesté is not different from other laws as far as he is concerned?

Is he testing the strength of the monarchic institution?

Is he measuring the tape between “sdach” and “samdach”?

What would the king himself think about the whole enchilada?

Does he truly feel offended or insulted by his subjects in question?

Has he ever been invited to testify at the court proceedings?

Qui tacet consentire videtur?

The weak strongman must surely have read and learned a lot about Chinese history, especially during the period of The Warring States, how Chinese dynasties were created, and how Chinese and foreigners became emperors.

Well, all first emperors of all Chinese dynasties were all common people, and warriors.

Hope that your students, in their dealing with their family, friends and colleagues possess higher standard of character, courtesy, respect, consideration and vocabulary towards their interlocutor than the lowly educated ex-KR and weak strongman.

This passage extracted from an article published by Radio Free Asia shows how crude and rude the weak strongman is in his public speech: «ហ្អែង​ចង់​ដឹង​ពេល​ហ្នឹង​ហា បើ​មិន​ហ្អែង​មិន​គេច​ទាន់​ទេ ពេលនេះ គឺ​ធ្វើបុណ្យ​ខ្មោច​ហ្អែង​បាត់​ទៅ​ហើយ តែឯង​ពូកែ​រត់ ពូកែ​ស្រែក ហើយ​រត់​ក៏​លឿន តែ​គ្រាន់តែ​គេ​មិន​ដេញ​តាមតែ​ប៉ុណ្ណឹង​ទេ​ឲ្យ​ឯង​រត់​សិន អញ​ក៏​មិនទាន់​ចង់​សម្លាប់​ហ្អែង​ដែរ ព្រោះ​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​មួយ​មិន​ឲ្យ​មាន​ការ​ចង់​ផ្ដួល​រំលំ​តាម​ចិញ្ចើម​ផ្លូវ​នោះ​ទេ»

How could a man who considers himself a statesman use such a foul and repugnant words such as ហ្អែង​, បុណ្យ​ខ្មោច​ហ្អែង​, អញ​, អញ​ក៏​មិនទាន់​ចង់​សម្លាប់​ហ្អែង​?! The only and possible explanation would be that he is by nature rude, rough, crude, raw and lacking in social refinement; it could also suggests ignorance of or indifference to good form and plain and intentional discourtesy.

On the contrary, Radio Free Asia, in its English program, provided a better and polite version to cover him in front of the international public: “I want to let you know that if you hadn’t fled Cambodia, you would already have had your funeral,” and “We didn’t pursue you because we didn’t want to kill you at the time”.

With such character and outside his realm of corrupt sycophants, who can give him respect? Mark Twain had the answer when he said: “A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.”

Your students must certainly have read this online information from both VODhotnews and The Cambodia Daily. Since the relationship between the Khmer communists and the Vietnamese communists went as far back as 1946 – quite possibly your students’ great-grandparents or grandparents generations – and still continue to influence the current conduct of the Khmer Rouge and ex-Khmer Rouge that rule the land of the Khmer since 1975, the visit should not be without controversy and your students’ attention and focus should be armed with some background awareness:

Ho Chi Minh (original name: Nguyen Sinh Cung) was the founder and a revolutionary leader of the League for the Independence of Vietnam or the Viet Minh, who led the Viet Minh Independence movement in 1941, and was president of Vietnam democratic republic in 1945.

Since the end of the Vietnam War and the reunification of Vietnam, between 1976 and today, Vietnam has had 7 presidents and 2 Chairmen of the Council of State.

Meanwhile, in 1975 Cambodia was led by Khmer Rouge and genocidal Pol Pot.

In 1977, the weak strongman (original name: Bunal or Nal) left his Khmer Rouge group and fled to Vietnam for protection and reorganization similar to the mold of the Khmer Viet Minh in 1954.

In 1979, he returned to Cambodia with the support of Vietnamese troops and became Cambodia solo prime minister since 1985 until today.

Would the trip to Vietnam under its 9th president who took office in October 2018 look like to pay homage and to recognize the eternal debt the weak strongman has contracted for his power as a subordinate ruler in Cambodia?

Would future history confirm its past?

Here are some historical lexicons that your students might wish to have in their notebooks:

Don’t spill the tea: Warning that the tea being boiled for the master is more important than the life of the oppressed.

Last but not least, let keep this definition in the back of the mind if the weak strongman doesn’t realize his bounded vassalage because of blindness or ignorance:“The definition of a vassal was someone in feudal times who received protection and land from a lord in return for allegiance and performing military and other duties, or someone who is subordinate.“An example of a vassal is a person who was given part of a lord’s land and who pledged himself to that lord.“An example of a vassal is a subordinate or servant.”